This invention relates to animal restraint devices and more particularly to a device for restricting or restraining animals from certain movements or actions while at the same time allowing the animal essentially full freedom in other movements and actions.
It is often desirable to restrict the movements of an animal in various ways in order to perform certain acts on the animal such as grooming, clipping, medical treatment or merely examination without undue danger to the person performing the act or undue discomfort or injury to the animal. In other instances, it is desirable to prevent an animal from reaching certain parts of his body with his mouth or paws so that he will be unable to aggravate, infect or otherwise adversely affect wounds, sores or surgical sites or to remove dressings or bandages by licking, biting, or scratching actions.
Prior Art Restraints of this type are exemplified by U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,815,525 to Hoagland, 2,941,507 to Becker et al, 2,998,008 to Klesa, 3,013,530 to Zeman, and 4,036,179 to Turner et al. The Hoagland and Becker et al devices are designed primarily for use with horses and attempt only to restrict head movements of the animal. The Klesa device is for the purpose of restraining individual arms and/or legs of human patients through attachment of the device directly to the arm or leg.
Zeman provides a large dish like shield member with a central opening which fits over the animal's head and is attached by a flexible means to a collar around the animal's neck. The animal is restrained from getting his mouth on other parts of his body, but it will experience difficulty and discomfort in normal functions of eating, sleeping or even lying down; it may also cause discomfort from the "dish" effect of concentrating normal sound waves into the animal's sensitive ears.
The Turner et al device comprises a padded, flexible, single piece member which wraps around the animal's forequarters and along his sides about shoulder high. The device is of sufficient thickness to prevent the animal from reaching his chest or belly areas or his rear extremities with his head. Nevertheless, the bulk of the device may prevent the animal from reclining or sleeping comfortably.
Neither the Zeman nor the Turner et al devices offer restraining action for other purposes such as examination or treatment of the animal.